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So to be clear from the get-go, I plan on designing and building a series of scenarios for President Infinity based around a Confederate Victory in the Civil War, though the map and conditions with be a mix of unique and cliche. That said, I want it to be as realistic as possible, with liberties taken only if they are required to maintain the play-ability or fun of the scenario, and only if they don't absolutely throw the entire set into the realms of Alien Space Bat Deep Space.
And that is why I am petitioning all the regulars of this subsection for help.
I thought you'd all would be the best ones to help craft the background, for it to have a modicum of realism in terms of the candidates, issues, parties and results. We would be doing it piecemeal, the main aims as of this post figuring out the Parties and Candidates contesting the '64 election.
Now my personal head-cannon for this is largely cliche, with Robert Lee's First Invasion of the North going far better, principally with Special Order 191 not being lost; a series of Union defeats in Maryland and Pennsylvania fuels a much larger wave of Democratic victories in the '62 Midterms, with the new House meeting in March refusing to continue funding the war effort. The "offer" of mediation from French and British Empires also complicated matters, and only added to the pressure upon the Lincoln Administration to come to an understanding with the Confederacy. The resulting peace, signed sometime in the Fall of '63, more or less was a Status Quo Antebellum, with the following caveats:
Western Virginia would be recognized as part of the Confederate State of Virginia, but the Northern Panhandle would be ceded to the Union State of Pennsylvania.
The Confederacy and the United States would be accountable for all damages done by the other within the recognized borders as of the Treaty. Under Franco-British pressure however these payments strongly favored the Confederacy.
The Confederacy was required to recognize Union ownership and drop its claims to the Union States of Missouri and Kentucky, as well as the Union Territory of New Mexico, in return for the United States recognizing Confederate ownership of the Indian and Oklahoma Territories.
So in terms of the Parties, this is what I had in mind.
Democratic - Fairly self-explanatory, the only difference being that OTL War Democrats of the period almost wholly part of it, rather then divided between it and the National Unionists.
Republican - Reeling from a series of major electoral defeats in '62 and '63, it is struggling to find its footing with most blaming the nation's defeat upon the Party and the Lincoln Administration.
Radical Democratic - While not a "party" per se at this stage, it is comprised mainly of those Republicans who are opposed to the moderated leadership as exemplified by Abraham Lincoln and William Seward, and take a more hardline stance in regards to the Confederacy, British and French. Virtually all still maintain their Republican membership.
In terms of candidates I honestly haven't had much of a clue, as the situation is far different from the actual situation that existed historically. It doesn't help that I'm still determining which Governors have been elected during this period, or even the makeup of the Senate (actual votes and candidates being hard to come by, if at all). Still, there are a few ideas I've bandied about. I'm trying to have at least four candidates for both the Democrats and the Republican, for balancing purposes.
Democratic
Sen. Anthony Kennedy (MD) - I admit I am partial to Kennedy largely because of a political game in Shared Worlds that made use of him (props to @Magus1108 and his MACNM series), and on the surface he seems like the kind of candidate who could unite the North and the Border South as he (or at least his brother) was opposed to slavery and helped end it in Maryland. At the same time I don't know if he was denied re-election by the Maryland legislature or retired (or was even considered by the Democratic membership, being a relatively recent addition after previously being a Constitutionalist, a Know-Nothing, and a Whig), which complicated things. The intention was that he was going to be the nominee, arising as a compromise candidate.
Gov. Clement L. Vallingdiham (OH) - Originally I had George Pendleton in his stead, but given the war would have ended before he was arrested, and he would have been re-elected to his seat in Congress potentially precluding said arrest, I feel he may have still remained a legitimate candidate for the Presidency if a divisive one. I also posited that he still probably would have been nominated by the Democrats of Ohio to run for Governor in '63, and facing a proper Republican rather than a War Democrat under more favorable conditions and with less controversy to his name, I didn't think it far-fetched for him to narrowly or even comfortably win the election.
Gov. Joel Parker (NJ) - A War Democrat, he seemed contender for support within that faction with George McClellan not being considered.
Gov. Horatio Seymour (NY) - I don't know whether to include him or not given his general disinterest in pursuing the nomination, despite his eventual acceptance of his draft in OTL. He was opposed to an attempted draft in '64 as it was, and I'm not sure if the changed landscape would have done much to change his mind.
Sen. Erastus Corning (NY) - Another moderate whose election was made possible by the Democratic wave, but his health would probably preclude any attempt at the nomination (though I'm not sure what the illness in question was).
Republican
Note: Determining candidates for the Republican nomination is complicated by the Radicals fielding their own ticket, meaning some of the more obvious choices will either be supporting them or holding back for a more favorable year. What I ultimately sought was a roster of more moderate Republicans, or those who for some time remained close to the Johnson Administration or participated in the National Union experiment of '66.
Sen. James Doolittle (WI)
Gov. John Albion Andrew (MA)
Gov. Oliver P. Morton (IN)
Rep. Theodore M. Pomeroy (NY)
Sen. Salmon P. Chase (OH)
Rep Nathaniel P. Banks (MA)
Pres. Abraham Lincoln (IL) - I deem this unlikely given the record of his Administration at this point, but it was still a possibility I thought I should consider.
Sen. Lyman Trumbull (IL)
Radical Democratic
Gen. John C. Fremont (NY) - The only nominee and only candidate, the idea behind his candidacy is a subtle change of what his run was in OTL, where Fremont here is running against the failures of the Lincoln Administration and a perceived walk-back of the traditional Republican platform. Gen. John Cochrane, Sen. Benjamin Gratz Brown, and Rep. Benjamin Butler all will be potential running-mates (they were all nominated by the delegates to the Cleveland Convention before Cochrane was acclaimed).
I still have no idea how to approach the question of the Senatorial elections given resources are so sparse in terms of nominees by the Parties or Factions, but I managed to go over what I think the makeup would be for the nation's Governors; I largely eyeballed the results as they historically were, and if the Democratic candidate was within 10% or so I gave it to them. The only caveat to that is when they were running against a War Democrat, in which case I looked at 15% or so instead, though that didn't really come up. Those which the Democrats managed to win are in bold.